Barren Ground Blooms In Change
by SilaswereWolfie
Summary: Without the Right Eye of Light, the world needs the Umbra Witches now more than ever. With Laguna out to get them, Jeanne and Bayonetta have no other choice but go back to their ancient home to protect their daughter and rebuild their lost Clan in the process.


The celestial flail slammed into the door of the nursery and sent a thousand splinters flying into the room.

Bayonetta cried out after the impact and scrambled to finish off the Fearless she was grappling with before they could go any further.

The Virtue had burst into the apartment while she was making dinner and tried to attack her completely unprovoked. They had attacked and pursued her with much harsher tactics than usual, giving the weaker angel an opening to the nursery.

The draconic angel was encased in a torture device with a strong kick and she launched herself at the Affinity. Taking out their heads with a flurry of bullets, she stopped them clean in their tracks.

She fell to the ground after the angel exploded and panted, gripping the large gash on her side. She had been caught by complete surprise and the witch wasn't one to lower her guard. Especially not when she was alone with her daughter. However, this time the forces of Laguna had landed some hits on her and it would take a good, long while to heal. Her legs were shaky and unstable as she tried to stand back up to tend to Artemisa.

Her daughter let out loud wails at all the commotion and she hurried to her feet, almost stumbling into the other room.

Splinters and brick were everywhere, the window was shattered by stray debris from the blast and the shelves and light fixtures had fallen down, yet that almost did not register on Bayonetta's mind. Her attention was all focused on the small, non descript crib near the ruined window.

A glowing sigil hovered over it and inside the shimmering purple field, her displeased baby could be found. Taking down the barrier, she noticed it had been damaged. Bayonetta didn't even want to think what would have happened if they hadn't thought to place quite powerful wards on it.

Laguna seemed to avoid attacking their residence but today their intentions were clear.

"Mommy is here now, little one..." She soothed and reached down, ignoring the various aches and pains vying for her attention. Cuddling the diminute child close to her fortunately unsullied chest, she continued. "No need to fear the mean angels."

She rubbed slow, careful circles on her daughter's back and the loud cries subsided to low whimpers in an instant.

It seemed the little girl had the healthy displeasure at being around Laguna goons that all good Umbra witches had. That or terrible impatience for interrupted naps.

Her terrified cries had worried Bayonetta so hard her heart was hammering around in her ribcage.

"Your mommy is gonna come home to find a really big mess, princess, but she'll have to deal unfortunately." Bayonetta sat as with as much grace as she could on what was left of their couch and closed her eyes. Willing her body to relax, she tried projecting calming energy towards her daughter.

This wasn't normal. The goons from up above never showed up uninvited unless something quite dire was about to happen. And in case they were out looking for a fight, which Bayonetta was known for provoking once in a while, they would focus on her or Jeanne.

Never had they tried to harm her baby girl or stormed their home with such intent as they had today.

And to top it all off, her left eye had been tingling like mad.

It hadn't been nearly enough years between now and their debacle with Jubileus and Balder. They needed time to regroup, to breathe before something like that to be happening again.

And now they had more than themselves to think of.

She looked into the still to red and puffy grey eyes of her baby and her heart constricted. How would they defend a little girl and deal with whatever situation was possibly brewing without sacrificing too much.

Heavenly light filtered once again through the hole on the left wall and it was followed by the damned scent of rosemary. Bayonetta jumped to her feet, intent on ending this lunacy once and for all.

A second later, a loud motorcycle broke the silence of the night and the indignant squawk of an Applaud followed immediately after. Their neck was constricted with a heavy chain while Jeanne smashed into them with her motorcycle.

"Cereza!" A mess of gore followed Jeanne's entrance through the gaping hole on their apartment but Bayonetta didn't care. She praised the Creator for her timely arrival.

She wasn't by all means on the ropes, despite her wounds, but having her Umbran sister and most beloved with her made her feel a million times safer. Had Jeanne not been detained after classes they might still have an intact nursery. If she had to guess, a contingent of goons had stopped there as well to wreak some havoc.

Jeanne stormed in, not caring about the dead angels and various broken objects and hugged them close. "Please tell me you're both alright."

Bayonetta kissed her softly and passed the still somewhat upset baby to her waiting hands. "We are fine, a little scared but no physical harm."

Jeanne noticed her wounds and opened her mouth to comment but she cut her off. "What of you? Seems like a rough school day." She looked her lover over and was relieved to find no major injuries.

Jeanne sighed and rolled her eyes, nuzzling her cheek on the baby's soft black hair. A happy gurgle from her daughter made her heart soar with joy and in that moment, the path she needed to forge ahead was clear as day.

"A horde of Applauds and a Gracious ambushed me downtown. Unprovoked, I might add." She surveyed the damage to their apartment and nearly winced. She was very fond of their flat on the highrise. "It was the third time this month."

Bayonetta nodded and moved to the kitchen in hopes of brewing some tea. Her limp was becoming more noticeable now that it had had some time to cool off and her wound on her side panged.

She gnashed her teeth but held on, trying to avoid any excuse to be fussed over.

The white haired witch lifted her hand and tried to follow her beloved. Before Jeanne could enter worry mode, Bayonetta waved her off and straightened as best she could. "Nothing a good long bath won't cure. For all of us."

* * *

The sweet herbal suds wafted a pleasant smell and she felt like she was floating on a cloud. Her wounds were no longer as painful as they had been an hour ago and Bayonetta melted into Jeanne's front.

As her tiredness caught up to her, her eyes closed without much prompting.

It was the perfect combination of divine warmth and the best company that she could ask for. Their little girl was finally asleep and she seemed no worse for the wear. Though Bayonetta doubted she was going to sleep on her crib tonight, it was on days like these all of them needed a little reassurance. They'd settle their little bean down between them on the bed and just let the night wash away their troubles.

"Cereza, we need to move." Jeanne spoke in that determined tone of hers, a tone Bayonetta had taken to calling the Very Serious Umbran Matters voice.

"What clued you in? The large hole on the living room wall or was it the angel guts redecorating the hallway?" She agreed with a satisfied noise, finally finding the perfect position against her lover's body.

The other witch shook her head. "No, I mean, we need to leave. Not just this particular apartment." They had moved a couple of times since the incident with Jubileus but always within the city. It wasn't anything they were too unfamiliar with but now Jeanne felt it was time for something much more drastic.

"We need to leave New York, for good. Move somewhere defensible and secure." Jeanne stated, massaging Bayonetta's short hair with gentle hands.

Bayonetta opened her eyes at that and tensed despite the loving caresses. This conversation sounded like it was going to take a turn towards very serious and life changing. Jeanne would only interrupt their post battle bath ritual if something monumental had happened.

"Tell me you are joking, please. Even if we were to move from Manhattan, where would we go? Umbran strongholds, I've been told, have been in rather short supply for the last five hundred years."

Jeanne knew her next words would not be well received by her partner. Still, she hoped Cereza would see reason or at the very least, see the complete necessity in what she was proposing.

"You'd be right. That's why we need to go to Vigrid."

"What?!" Bayonetta got up from her spot and settled on the other side of the tub, facing Jeanne head on. "Have you lost your mind, darling?"

_Vigrid_. Of all the places on the realm of Chaos, Jeanne wanted to jump right back into a place that held all the worst memories. For both of them.

She could barely remember who she was, save for disjointed flashes and events. Very few of those memories had anything to do with her childhood on the city, bleak and harsh as it apparently had been.

Yet she had been shoved there right in the middle of the Witch Hunts. She had seen her mother's death and observed the destruction of her clan firsthand.

Intellectually, she had no recollections of her childhood but every time she thought too hard...

Cold, betrayal, death, exile.

_Pariah._

Those emotional imprints had no memories attached to them but just thinking about her past unearthed all sorts of bad feelings and few good ones.

Love...

A part of her mind, a part that was buried deep deep down, also said. She smiled a little and gazed at the determined Witch in front of her with nothing but affection. Jeanne was, fortunately, what she remembered best.

Disjointed flashes of camaraderie and acceptance came to mind. What had developed from there patched up some of those cracks. It was almost powerful enough to chase away all the frameless feelings of disgust and helplessness everything else evoked.

Jeanne had had everything to lose and absolutely nothing to gain by being her friend when they were little. From what she told Bayonetta, little Cereza was no more than a ghost in the halls. She had been a small child that slept every day against the bars of her mother's cell and that the remaining witches worked hard at ignoring.

How she was kept fed and clothed was still a mystery but one she didn't wish to dwell on.

"Vigrid is…" She couldn't even put her pain in words. It was the last place she wanted to be but Jeanne still wasn't through.

"Our home, a fortress. Her birthright." Bayonetta looked away. Their daughter's heritage was indeed something they had to consider. Plus there was lots of reason for Jeanne's worry, no doubt about that.

Ever since Balder had left the play, the Right Eye of Light was no more and with it came rather uncomfortable changes.

Their summonings were becoming increasingly unpredictable and an air of instability permeated both Paradiso and Inferno. It was so unstable that Rodin often commented on it and the man did not warn in vain.

What it meant for their corner of the Trinity of Realities and more importantly, for their family in particular they did not know. She couldn't say she was eager to find out either and knowing them, it was going to be big.

Ever since their little girl had been born, angels had been flocking down from the heavens at unprecedented rate. Sometimes they even saw the stray demon along side the feathered monsters, an oddity in and of itself.

Bayonetta sighed and as if on cue her left eye burned. Damned thing had acquired that habit during her pregnancy. "Ugh, the treasured Left Eye is much more trouble than its worth."

She grunted and crossed her arms over her ample chest. "Fine, Vigrid may be all that but its also in complete shambles. I don't know about you, my love, but I'm more apt at destroying."

Jeanne chuckled and moved forward, resting her body between Bayonetta's legs. "Must be your Lumen side talking, Cereza." Resting her arms on the other woman's shoulders, she leaned close. "Witches have roots to hell, we build down."

She captured her lips in an unhurried kiss. "The Sages and their lovely angels like their towers to pierce the heavens but they know nothing of our labyrinths. Underneath the ruins is the bulk of the Umbra Witches' home and I would bet much still stands."

And nothing to say of Crescent Valley but that was for another time. First and foremost they had to settle back on Vigrid.

Bayonetta snaked her hands through her torso and pulled her closer, resting her hands on small of her back.

"So, no construction working? Here I was thinking I was going to put my 'Left Eye of Creation' to good use." She nodded her head in the direction of where their daughter was sleeping. "Again."

Jeanne rolled her eyes but smiled. "You are impossible. Don't worry, I'm sure those powers of yours will be needed yet again."

"For now though, we must go take back what is ours."

* * *

Vigrid was all and well the ancestral home of the Umbra Witches and their seat of power but it had several problems to it.

For one, it was a small, old medieval european town made of half paved goat trails and touristy charm. That meant that all the great conveniences of Manhattan, like running water or shopping places, were largely unavailable.

Not only that but it was also in the veritable ass end of nowhere. There were no planes or any modern means of getting there beyond via a train Bayonetta was sure was around when she was a kid.

So there they were. The Umbran Elder, the Left Eye of Darkness and the precious little girl that would one day be both pretending to be a very normal family of humans.

Staying away from Purgatorio had been a necessity. Engaging with Laguna when they had no way to safeguard their baby was too dangerous to consider. Neither Jeanne nor Bayonetta wanted to have to split up and rendezvous in town if they could avoid it. Who was to say one of them could hold off the angels long enough to let them escape to Luna.

If she squinted it was almost as if they were a carefree couple and their daughter out on vacations through the european countryside.

They kept to Purgatorio on their travels so most of the time humans never saw them. Yet today, it seemed every kind, elderly person wished to congratulate them on a parenting job well done.

Well Bayonetta was certainly proud of her nine months of handiwork and Jeanne had nothing but radiant pride and happiness reserved for the little one.

All the intrusive common folk worked in their favor. They gave them an odd air of normalcy that seemed to dim their supernatural selves enough to go undetected.

Though truth be told, Jeanne was still upset at herself because she had forgotten two Umbra Witches could, in fact, conceive by accident.

It had happened one night after they both had narrowly missed being sent down to Inferno early due to a summoning gone wrong.

At that moment they realized the state of affairs was decidedly wrong and in the future they'd have to use their powers with much more caution.

Bayonetta, who had summoned Gomorrah in the first place, was the one that had been most shaken. She had given Jeanne an intense scolding as soon as they had gotten home that day. She told her in no uncertain terms that she should stop being daft and tackling her away from monsters like that.

Despite the heated argument that followed, they had ended in bed with emotions at fever pitch on a full moon night. Underneath Bayonetta's anger hid a profound worry and Jeanne would still sacrifice herself for her most beloved.

Despite everything that had happened, some Umbran magic was still working in tip top shape.

"Another day and we should be there." Jeanne said as she looked out the window to the dark night. Though she wasn't too fond of travelling on a new moon when their powers were at their weakest, another lunar cycle back in America had too high a risk. "I think going to hell would take less time than this train."

Balder had had five hundred years to modernize the damned transportation network but had prefered to spend that time planting rockets inside buildings.

"Much less and possibly with less intruding strangers as well." Bayonetta cushioned her head on the table with her arms, extending one of them and letting Artemisa grab her hand. "This should be a warning, we'll have to beat off people with a stick away from our little girl."

"I think we have a while yet before we have to commission Rodin sentient guns and strap them to her." Jeanne teased, a smile playing at her lips.

She wasn't used to being out on the open and away from Purgatorio where humans could see her freely. Her diplomatic missions as envoy to the Umbran Clan felt like a lifetime ago, back when Lumen and Umbra talked, not just among themselves but also with mortals.

As the heir, she was the face of the Witches to the world but then the Witch Hunts changed everything. She had gone so underground to avoid ending up like all her sisters, the mere fact she was letting them see her willingly felt odd.

And of course, it had been people like these that had hunted them till there was no one left but herself. They had murdered them all and burned their home to the ground with little thought.

It had been five hundred years but Jeanne still hadn't forgotten, much less forgiven them. Not even after knowing that the angels had spurred the mortals into a frenzy did she feel any inclined to forgive them. The last five hundred years would not be easily erased.

Bayonetta had fallen asleep again, glasses skewed uncomfortably on her face and hand getting nommed on by their daughter.

Carefully removing the glasses and plucking the long hand from between her daughter's gums, she took a deep breath.

It was the calm before the storm. She could feel it in her bones something big was brewing and she'd bet they were going to be in the thick of it sooner or later. Yet at that very moment, with curious baby hands pawing at her watch and her lover's heavy (but totally not snoring) breathing misting the well polished wooden table, it felt as if everything was going to be ok.

* * *

Jeanne's jaw tensed as she surveyed the meager offerings that were left of their once proud home. At first glance, little of the courtyard remained except for a sizable forest of weeds and broken stone. Their clocktower, what had once housed the Grandmother clock, the Umbran pride and joy, was a decapitated wreck.

Though perhaps more immediately worrying to their situation was the state of the topside fortress. The witches and their families had lived there and with it obliterated, they'd have to find somewhere else to live.

She could remember the exact moment Fortitudo had landed on the tower and ripped apart the central clock. Her mother had once sat down with her inside the tower and told her that it was the beating heart of the Umbra witches in a way that it harvested moonlight and empowered all of them. As long as they were on home turf, they were at their most powerful.

It had been the first real loss in the war and one that had struck a very harsh blow to her sisters.

Not only had it been a loss of their own personal power but also a drop in morale so deep, Jeanne had had trouble rallying anyone to fight after that.

The Clan Wars had left them hollowed out but the Witch Hunts had been the ultimate betrayal.

Maybe this was a bad idea, maybe Vigrid had nothing else to offer, maybe... A faint tendril of power rippled nearby that made Artemisa snap awake from her nap and look towards the yard like a cat after a bird.

Her pudgy arms made grabby motions forward and they followed in that direction. Approaching a small collection of bushes with mossy and dirty debris was a small fragment of the once grand central jewel of their clock.

Sighing, she bent down and let her daughter practice her still quite amateurish hand eye coordination skills on the small, purple shard. It was no bigger than Jeanne's hand but the original piece had been a glittering gemstone larger than their daughter was now.

Even after all these years, there was still life in it even if it was so faint they had almost missed it.

As far as omens went, that one wasn't all that bad.

"Well, well, well. Aren't you a little treasure hunter, babygirl." Bayonetta crouched down to her level and took the fragment from her, kissing her hands. "But maybe this isn't quite on your age range." Artemisa whimpered and tried to follow her mother's hands to no success.

She was sure Jeanne would proceed to tell her what a priceless, monumental artifact it was but it also had quite the sharp corners. Maybe their princess was better off not trying to shove it on her mouth.

Sheba's infernal thongs, babies had to have amazing sensory organs on their mouths with the way her boop insisted on taking in the world by putting everything in there.

"Cereza, we might have a problem." Bayonetta looked at her and raised an eyebrow. She could see so many problems, she could well organize them alphabetically.

"We'll have to break the sigils on the first gates to find any shelter, that alone will be a monumental undertaking but also…" Jeanne gestured in vague motions to the ruins in front of her. "The housing units are all destroyed. Only other place I know thats safe enough for us to spend the night is the jail cells."

Fly me to the moon Let me play among the stars…

Bayonetta shook her head and looked down, away from the scene as much as she could without physically leaving. As she tried to clear the cobwebs of memory, Jeanne looked at her with worried eyes. Now was the worst time for flashbacks, especially of that sort.

As much as she might have wanted to lord over Jeanne that they were much better back in America, the atmosphere here was different.

Maybe she was just seeing ghosts but in here it felt like the fuzzy lack of control they had been experiencing since the Right Eye had checked out was gone. She was feeling a sharpness to her senses she hadn't felt in a long while.

"Come on then, darling. Night will set and I want to secure the musty, old ass perimetre so you can get your beauty sleep." The irreverent smirk was as teasing as it was reassuring and the small smile she got in return was quite worth it.

The main gates were quite easy to find. As the only structure that was still standing, the large arch with solid wooden doors looked like it had been part of something massive once upon a time. Now all it was a whisper of the people that had once called it home.

The giant glowing barrier was even easier to spot and they approached the glittering halo in hopes of being able to take it down.

"This is novel." Bayonetta wondered aloud and Jeanne grimaced, laying a hand on the mark and closing her eyes.

Taking her cue, she focused her power on the offending barrier and an enormous feedback nearly knocked her off her feet. Her partner hadn't been kidding when she said this was going to be a massive task.

Bracing herself harder, she fought back with a surge of her own energy and tried her best to get in synch with Jeanne. Unless they hit the blasted thing at the same time, there was no way they would do it before sun fall. Even doing so on time would leave them completely drained and vulnerable to any winged bastards keeping an eye out for the ruins.

She gnashed her teeth and looked to the side, locking eyes with Jeanne and nodding. With as much magical concussive force as they could muster, they slammed into the glowing seal with everything they had.

The shower of golden light made Bayonetta sag in utter relief. Hopefully inside there wouldn't be any more of these nasty barriers.

Artemisa giggled at the shower of sparks, well it least they had been useful for something.

Jeanne slumped with her back against the now unlocked massive gates like a sack of potatoes. Beside her, Bayonetta slid to a seating position on the ground next to her with a fine sheen of sweat gathering at her brow.

This had been a dangerous gambit she hoped would pay off. Right now, they were out for the count. With no moon to help them, any intruder would have no trouble snatching their baby from them.

Not wanting to stick around and find out if any angelic bouncers would come running, she shoved off the wooden frame and extended her free hand to Bayonetta.

"Going deeper is our only option right now but there shouldn't be any more obstacles quite like this down there."

She hefted her up to her legs and passed Artemisa off to the other woman. From here on, only she knew the way and most importantly, the obstacles.

The Umbra Witches still had hidden secrets, some of them most dangerous.

* * *

Jeanne had finished her perimetre search and was glad to find there were no lurking presences or any trace of Laguna. That was a small blessing at least.

As she had suspected, the only viable and secure place to bunk down was on the cell block. The ancient charms were still in place and without proper permission, the dark seals were nearly impossible to break by anything less than a large contingent of First Sphere angels.

They had had to keep their most dangerous and often most powerful members in there. It wasn't anything just anyone could breeze past, either in or out.

As heir to the Clan, Jeanne had permission to enter though it was still quite taxing. It involved retuning the strongest wards in all of Luna and that wasn't easy at all.

She entered the training hall and the memories the darkened room surfaced made her slow down her steps until she stopped completely. Dark bile of regret wormed its way up to her throat and a flood of memories came crashing into her.

Their numbers had been too few in the aftermath of the Clan Wars and it was no longer viable to protect their home from being invaded. They could have retreated deeper into the ancient abandoned tunnels but that would have meant sacrificing the last of their culture.

Jeanne had been the one to suggest not retreating deeper underground. It was better to fight to keep Paradiso and the people of Vigrid from their treasures. And most importantly, keep them from burning down everything else they held dear.

It had been a great surprise when nearly everyone agreed, their clan was doomed but their heritage would endure and perhaps, in time, they would rebuild. As long as there was a Trinity of Realities there would be Umbra Witches to oversee the Dark.

Perhaps, though, her greatest surprise had been her own survival.

Her Sisters had given up their lives so she could live and her greatest pain had been realizing they wouldn't let her go out fighting. Their sense of duty and friendship had them being her forward guard. It didn't matter how much she had raged against the injustice, how much she had howled it didn't matter she was the heir or how deeply she had wanted to protect all of them.

The Umbra Witches had died protecting their home and their Elder, as it was supposed to be.

And now, there she stood half a millennium later, gazing upon what they had sacrificed an eternity in hell for.

Hollow ruins.

She heard Bayonetta's heels on the corridor to the prison long before she entered the training hall. The light fixtures came blazing to life as she entered and dragged Jeanne away from her dark reverie.

"Oh there you are, playing spook. I was about to go looking for you." She stood there impassively while Bayonetta talked. Artemisa was cradled against her chest and eyes were barely open. "As soon as, of course, I told our princess about that time you glided in with the most provocative cleavage attached to a red clingy and swept me off my clumsy feet, like some bloody prince."

"...Out of all the things to remember, thats what comes to mind?" She mumbled as she let her lover thread their fingers together and gently coax her out of the room.

They went by Rosa's old cell and neither of them commented on it. Bayonetta hadn't said anything when they first arrived and it wasn't going to be Jeanne that was going to drag that cat out of the bag. Especially not after her encounter with some of the lingering ghosts of this place.

"I'm missing context, I don't remember the why or what happened after. I remember you finding me and I was working my hardest to not faint then and there from all of your beauty and radiance."

Jeanne leaned closer and let her head rest on Bayonetta's shoulder as an arm wrapped around her and pulled her close.

It hadn't been an easy day. She needed three seconds of respite before she could be the strong Umbra Elder Bayonetta and Artemisa needed her to be.

"It was the Winter Ball, I knew you were lonely and sad down here and I wanted to kiss you senseless and make you smile. I gave my friends, the guards and my furious mother the slip to come meet you."

Artemisa reached out for her glasses and giggled when her small hands touched the cool glass. Her drowsiness was easily forgotten now that her mommy was within hands reach.

"Not that I had any doubt but I see you were the perfect choice. Who doesn't love princesses?" She pressed a kiss to white hair. "So very gallant."

They arrived at the largest cell, a stone walled room barely big enough to lay down a couple of mattresses. In the middle of it was the small crate with old blankets they were currently calling a crib.

"It shouldn't take more than a week to cobble some other living quarters away from here." Jeanne said, removing her glasses and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "Hopefully."

"Why not just stay here? We could modify part of this wing and those wicked wards would keep off basically everyone."

She reset her glasses on her face and shook her head. "The wards are too powerful for me to constantly shift their polarity, I could retune them to you but same problem. Others options would be to try and take them down, put lesser wards here instead but." She made a circular motion with her hand. "Here is the most well kept location on the stronghold."

"Hmm, I suppose you do have a point. Besides I'm not sure how I'd like living here full time but keeping our little angel magnet safe is the most important thing."

"One of the money vaults, perhaps. Mid level wards we can break down, not too big of a loss but for that we have to secure the upper rings and see how much Laguna is invested in hounding us over here."

Bayonetta chuckled and laid down on her ratty mattress. "Always dreamed of sleeping on top of a hoard of gold, much like a dragon. I knew marrying rich would have its advantages."

"Psh, we aren't married so you better keep your intentions of wasting all my hard earned money a secret."

Rolling over to Jeanne's side of the room while miraculously not bumping into the crib/room divider, she rested her body on top of her lover's. She was about to deal with the sudden increase in body temperature when their divider made her presence known.

"Oh I see how this is, huh. Don't want any chance to have to share us with a sister, now do you?"

The adorable 'gah' Bayonetta got in reply was, she felt, a very good indicator her daughter had inherited more sass than what they'd know what to do with in later years.

* * *

"I'd love to know what's behind door number five." Bayonetta mumbled, tapping the extremely strong barrier in front of it and setting her hands on her hips.

The monumental door had resisted the test of time and in front of her stood perhaps the most ornate and well kept door on the compound.

They had been working on reasonable dwellings and doing enough repairs to introduce some modern conveniences. Bayonetta wondered why they hadn't touched this section yet.

This was a room that was obviously important. Otherwise the damn thing wouldn't be as ornate or as well protected, and they came by it often enough. The problem was that Jeanne acted like it didn't even exist.

Of course, she did the same with her mother's cell so there was most likely some sort of painful history attached to it that Jeanne wasn't quite ready to reveal.

Which was more than fine but it didn't fail to light up her curiosity like a kid looking at Christmas presents.

"Well then, why don't we?" Jeanne's rather sneaky approach made her jump a bit and she took her hand off the barrier.

She was about to tell her that using any more magic would put her out of commission for the next month but Jeanne beat her to it. With a single, feather light touch the barrier was lifted and the doors flung wide open.

"Welcome to the Grand Library, the seat of our knowledge and to a smart witch, the seat of our power as well."

An ocean of books and shelves stretched in front of her for what she felt was miles with tall, vaulted ceilings as far as the eye could see. The interior was pristine and untouched, which surprised her.

Leave it to the Umbra Witches to do things in absolute style.

If she didn't know any better, she'd say it was still in use today. She was just looking at it in a moment of odd inactivity, as if someone might stroll in at any time and return to their research.

There were books and parchments strewn about the tables, with chairs out of place and spilled inkwells dirtying up the polished furniture. It was a lively scene among all the death and stillness.

If she strained she could hear the Witches that had once roamed these halls, like ghosts that lingered on. Though it was also a charged atmosphere, a scene that spoke of women that had had to take up arms and protect their home almost overnight.

"I'm assuming you're a smart witch, then?" She wanted to tease but the tone of her words came blurting out like utter awe. She liked books, books were full of…

_Cereza gasped and pointed with her small finger at the drawing of a Witch, proud and tall like her mummy. The pages of a giant tome that had made her sneeze from the dust it had collected over the centuries but she couldn't wait to read it._

_Jeanne had smuggled it out from her endless lessons and she glomped the other girl close._

_"Thank you!"_

...drawings.

"Cereza? You have that look of 'I'm not sure about this Left Eye business, please tell me you're not my sister' you used to have." Jeanne touched her arm and Bayonetta blinked a couple of times, shaking her head.

"What can I say, all of these books are so exciting." There was an odd pounding in her heart and a tiny, girlish voice in the back of her head that uttered how she couldn't wait to read all about the Umbra Witches.

As she surveyed the magnificent and pharaonic space, she realized the importance of this location. It was the final piece of a puzzle falling into place.

"Wait...this is why you gave yourself up, wasn't it?" The Lumen barrier at the gate, Jeanne's own protection and conservation of this space, it all made sense now.

She respected her lover's decision, even if emotionally she couldn't quite grasp her undying loyalty to the clan. A decision like that mustn't have been easy to make.

She told her that she gave herself up to Balder because that was what had been best for the Umbra Witches. Yet she had never explained how letting herself be brainwashed had benefited their situation exactly.

Jeanne had shrugged at the heaps of gold they had relocated to make their new home. The books though, had been why she had let Balder yank her leash for centuries.

She returned a small, sad smile at Bayonetta's words and started forward. "Despair was why I gave myself up. Fortunately, Balder was more or less a man of his word. If that barrier could keep most people out then my life was pocket change compared to this."

"As long as there is a Trinity, there will always be Witches and they will need some place to come back to and find their history." She said, going forward to stand on the central circle. It was the nerve center of the library, a marble hall where all the corridors radiated from. It stretched into the unlit depths surrounded by shelves upon shelves, full to the brim with books.

She was the keeper to her overseer, the Elder to her Left Eye.

Maybe it was up to Bayonetta to maintain balance but it was up to Jeanne to maintain them and she didn't envy her task for one second.

"A smart witch indeed…"

* * *

" Princess, one day all of this will be yours"

Jeanne was happy their tower was still standing, somewhat. Even after the passing of the centuries and two different wars, it was still an impressive structure.

Her own mother had sat with her there, when there was still a clock tower to cover them from the elements. The soft lessons she had learned up here were some of her fondest memories of her childhood.

They had done a lot of repairs by now, the subterranean levels were looking quite good and less battle worn. Now, restoring the Grandmother Clock would be, without a doubt, their hardest task.

Honestly, she wasn't even sure if they could do it during their lifetimes. Maybe they would have to draft blueprints and leave out instructions. Jeanne felt the only change the Clock had of being restored was if whatever witches would find this took up the task.

From their vantage point, they could spot the city in the distance. Its paved over goat tracks were still as labyrinthian as usual but the scars left from the fights during the Festival Of Resurrection were still visible.

Vigrid was different, broken but healing. It was still recovering from Balder's plans and now it added the wreck of Ithavoll Tower far to the west to the Umbran and Lumen ruins.

" We will rebuild, don't worry." She said, adjusting her daughter's warm fluffy coat. "Fortunately many things, like the Grand Library, are still standing."

It had only cost her her sanity and bodily autonomy for several centuries but that was a story Artemisa didn't need to hear yet. She would tell her, in time. Her daughter could learn from their mistakes and hopefully not repeat them.

Her past was full of shame and she could not change that but at least, this way, she could put it to good use.

"You'll learn of your heritage but a heritage is something you stand on so you can build better." The baby was sitting on her lap and looking around, babbling softly and laughing when Jeanne tickled her belly. "Don't let it trap you in the old ways."

"Our ways didn't treat mommy so well...or at all. When I was younger, my goal was to take the mantle of the Elder and change that. Now, I think, we can start over..."

The breeze ruffled Artemisa's soft baby hair, messing up all her hard work combing and putting on hair clips. Despite the relative chill, her daughter had never looked as happy, taking in all the strange new sights.

Jeanne couldn't help but smile so broadly her face hurt. Her daughter, a little girl she had helped conceive, albeit by somewhat accident, was proof that in the end, after all the hardship and pain, things could work out.

All those years ago, when she was barely an adult sneaking Cereza in to her room, she had never dared to dream of this outcome. She thought her life would be in dedication of making sure what happened with Cereza would never ever happen again.

Now there they were, on the brink of a new dawn. The two last Umbra Witches in history, their little bundle of raw energy and all the girls out there in potential.

Jeanne was the inexperienced and frankly quite rusty Elder without a court or Clan. She wondered if this new dawn they were creating had any space for new bloom

She feared their earth was so scorched nothing could ever grow.

* * *

Bayonetta looked around and nodded to herself, clearly satisfied with her morning of work. Finally, after almost half a year of hard work, the upper courtyard was looking rather good. All the broken statues and debris had been mostly cleared away and even some of the simpler walls were patched up.

On some days it felt so futile to wake up and try to cobble together what best they could of their home. It seemed never ending, for every room they repaired they'd discover two more pits of rubble and skeletons to deal with.

here was always more to be done and maybe spending her whole life to repair just a tiny fraction was not something she was too keen on.

But now, she actually could see some improvement and it made her quite damn happy to be useful.

Her peaceful thoughts ended when a whiff of rosemary wafted her way and Bayonetta snarled. "Not today!" She entered Purgatorio with lightning fast speed and shifted into her panther form right away.

In a second she was sprinting after whatever angels had seen fit to descend from Paradiso and wreck her hard work.

Bayonetta followed the obnoxious heavenly light and heavy stomping to the outer claustrum. A group of Braves was happily destroying the nice garden Jeanne had spent most of her free time on and that got a loud growl out of her.

She sped up and launched herself at the nearest one, dealing in a crippling blow while exiting her animal form.

With one of the cherubims gone, she turned her attention to the other two who had snapped out of their petty vandalism and were ready to charge at her. She grabbed Scarborough Fair and made quick work of them in a brutal but rather satisfying volley of bullets and torture devices.

Jeanne would have her head for not protecting her precious fruit trees but it wasn't like she could yell the Cherubims away like they were intrusive wildlife.

As the excitement died away, she bent down to pick up her bounty of halos. First Sphere angels always had them in such abundance, she could daydream of her next commission. In the middle of her pleasant thoughts she heard a muffled sniffle that made her freeze.

"Artemisa?" No, it wasn't possible for her daughter to have toddled away ten whole stories and gotten by Jeanne in the hour she had been gone.

But then again, Umbra baby...

The sound seemed to be coming from behind one of the pillars and Bayonetta's gut grew cold. What if something had happened with Jeanne or her daughter?!

"Boop? Is that you?!" Her voice cracked a bit as she sped up her step and rounded the pillar in a hurry.

Only to be surprised with a little girl that was very much not her daughter. Huddled against the rock was a skinny toddler with dark skin and big green eyes that made her stop dead in her tracks.

It was an odd thing, a child that seemed to be about Artemisa's age so far away from town. Luna was far off Vigrid and no regular human would come over unless they had any business there. So, the mystery was what was a little thing like her, who was at best attempting her first steps, doing there?

Maybe someone had abandoned her there? An awful long hike out of town for that. Plus she couldn't find any basket or note near her and she was naked beyond a nondescript white diaper.

Her being in Purgatorio worked to her advantage. The child couldn't see her and it gave her more time to assess the situation without spooking her.

Or it would have if aforementioned child had not snapped up to look at her straight in the eye as she approached.

As soon as she saw her the little baby toddled off in fear.

"What? Did you actually just see me?" She hurried after the quite fast baby before she could run afoul of a broken window or other dangerous things.

Why did mysterious children always happen to her!?

The baby crawled straight into a severed head, panicked and stumbled back into a column. She grabbed her head and started crying, the loud noise piercing the usually silent courtyard.

All of Bayonetta's considerable maternal instincts were tripped up and she sprang to action.

"Oh no, you're just like my daughter." Bayonetta approached her and grabbed her from the ground slowly, settling her against her chest. "I swear, are you babies all that uncoordinated or do I just have bad sampling?"

She checked the girl for any wounds and was relieved that beyond some scraps and the recent bump on her head, she had none.

Though, what was she doing there?

A search of the area and entrance hall revealed no further information or anything that might suggest she had been abandoned. Maybe the angels had dragged her off from her parents? Or worse, killed the parents and took the child.

Their mythological affinity for kids was less about protecting their innocence and more about taking them back to Paradiso before they became tainted.

With no other choice or clue to go on, Bayonetta walked back to the compound and tried her best to get her to calm down.

By the time they arrived at the library, Jeanne's absolute favorite haunt to scribble on her blueprints, the baby had calmed down substantially. Yet there was still too much fear of the dark stone walls for a child so young.

Though if it was the first time she had seen angels, Bayonetta could very much understand that.

"Jeanne! We have a situation!" She yelled into the Grand Library. Hopefully Jeanne would hear her from whatever hole hundreds of meters up she had crawled into that day.

"What?!" Was the faraway reply and Bayonetta looked up. She squinted to see her lover suspended on the navigation rig with a tome that looked too large to be comfortable

"There was a baby outside and I don't know what to do with it!"

Jeanne halted her reading and looked down, adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. Her eyebrows shot up to her hair when she spotted the small baby on Bayonetta's arms.

She immediately let herself fall from the mobility rig, landing next to her with a dull thud.

"A baby?" She echoed, inspecting her for anything out of the ordinary. Her puzzlement increased when it seemed to be a human child with nothing extraordinary about her.

"Yes, you know. Sex, nine months of back pain and coddling then hell in a handbasket and et voilá, this comes out." She replied and lifted the little girl in Jeanne's direction.

"I am aware, we have one of those." Big green eyes peered at her, brows scrunching up in displeasure once again. "Let's… we should put her in with Artemisa for the time being, see what she needs." Well, it seemed their visitor didn't like her much or had some other need that wasn't being fulfilled. Jeanne's baby handling powers seemed to extend solely to Artemisa and her particular way of communicating displeasure. She felt somewhat out of her depth with a whole new baby, especially one did not seem to like her.

"Why do you think she's here?" Bayonetta said as they walked out of the library. "I couldn't find any other belongings and a baby wouldn't just appear here. Do you think the cherubims brought her?"

It wasn't unheard of children being taken by angels but it was unheard of them dropping said children on Luna. They sacrificed them quickly in hopes of pure souls being reborn within their Spheres.

"Well...sometimes they did, babies showing up I mean." She said, recalling the little girl that had shown up at their doorstep one spring much like this little one.

Her mother had said she'd seen it often enough to know nobody would coming looking for them. Jeanne's next task had been searching their records for reports so she could get familiar with such occurrences.

Most of the witches from human parents came to them looking for a home when they were just children and their caretakers did not know what to do with them.

Yet actual babies were rare. Only the most desperate of parents would trekk all the way over to Luna.

In most cases, it was even more puzzling. The witches searched and searched to no avail. Not even magical means revealed any conclusive origin, it was like they had materialized at their doorstep.

"They'd appear and we'd search high and low for parents or a reason but nothing though these days, it might be different."

"Last time something like this happened, a dimension destroying god almost killed us all." Bayonetta remarked while Jeanne went about making an improvised nest for their new occupant on Artemisa's fluffy play space. "Maybe we should look for her parents and see what we can find."

"Of course, I'm just saying mysterious, inexplicable drops have been known to happen." She said as she set down new blankets and pillows. "Very rarely but they have."

"Well, she saw me in Purgatorio and she definitely saw the Braves attacking. The kid isn't a normal human that's for sure."

Jeanne halted her motions as the enormity of that statement dawned on her. That tiny baby, halfway to imprinting on her love, was an be a Umbra Witch in potential.

What if...no, she would not speculate any further. They'd search for the girl's parents, family, guardians, anything as much as they could.

And in the fairly possible case of them turning up with nothing, they'd have to talk about it and see.

She had the feeling new life was about to bloom but there had been too many setbacks and conflicts for her to dare hope so early.

Artemisa peeked from the bars of her crib and cooed with feline curiosity at the novel person on her playmat.

"Hello, little boop. We have a new friend that might be staying a while, why don't you come say hi?" Jeanne grabbed her and set her down on the red mat.

She was cautious enough for a small child and chose to approach the unknown girl with careful movements.

The other girl whimpered and grabbed her newly acquired blanket, toddling away from Artemisa in fear.

Bayonetta sat cross legged on the floor as the scene started unfolding. The little girl quickly found refuge on her lap, leaving a confused Artemisa behind her. She curled on her lap, trembling a bit underneath her blanket.

"Seems she needs a little peace and quiet for now, can't be easy seeing those ugly things for the first time." Bayonetta massaged the little girl's scalp in slow, smooth motions. It was a trick she had learned on her daughter's many days of baby displeasure and it had seen them though many hard times.

Jeanne could only smile at her lover's effortlessly tender nature and went to Artemisa.

"You're right, I'll set our princess in the other room and we can try this a bit later." She picked up their daughter, bent down to kiss Bayonetta and disappeared through the sturdy door of the still somewhat improvised nursery.

"You'll be ok, little one, nothing will harm you down here…" Damnit, Rodin was right. She was just a pile of soft pillows that babies loved.

Her reputation as the baddest witch in town kept getting shot to hell.

Chuckling to herself, she tucked the small child on her lap and started humming her most familiar tune.

* * *

The next time Bayonetta found her, Jeanne was on a much more down to earth position. She stood inside a circular table and was in the process of reviewing what looked to be schematics for crystalline structures.

"Umbra Baby is still weary of Artemisa but got over some of her distrust when the boop tossed her kitty doll at her." Bayonetta sat on top of the least priceless looking books and looked at her lover. "Managed to get them to sleep on the same room and after giving her some food, she conked out remarkably fast."

"Tough girl, if it was our princess she'd have started crying ages ago."

They shared a bout of chuckles and she looked to all the parchments and papers strewn about. "What do you think will happen next?"

Jeanne didn't even dare to dream what the arrival of a magically powered baby would mean for them. Artemisa had begun to show some manipulation of dark energy but just how much they'd not know till later on.

If she happened to only have vestigial control, ancient Umbra law dictated she would have to live a secular life.

Ancient Umbra law could screw itself right into Paradiso, her baby girl was staying or there was no point in her being Elder.

But this new baby in these conditions usually meant a good, strong Witch could be trained.

The grand question was...did it mean things were righting themselves?

Was the need for the overseers of Dark and Light that great? Would the powers that be, mysterious as they were, make sure the Umbra Witches and the Lumen Sages would again be reborn?

"I don't know Cereza, I can only hope."

"For what?"

"A chance to bloom."


End file.
